MID LIFE AT THE OASIS

Greetings All:

We’re wrapping up 8 days on the islands of the Southwestern Gulf of Thailand and about to get back on the high speed catamaran to Chumphon, which is about two hours away on the main coast. Goodbye beaches…. 🙁 The weather this time of year in these islands is pretty variable due the the fact that it is the middle of the Northeast monsoon. This has meant some spectacular weather, rain, and wind, along with plenty of sunshine in between. It’s really my idea of perfect island weather as all sunshine would be a bit too much, well, correction, ideal except when you need to make open ocean crossings by boat! The protected beaches and bays were fine and saw little wind, butt when we boarded the catamaran in choppy seas on Northern Ko Samui, the big swells required the crew to grab and hold each passenger as the loose dock, ramp, and boat were varying in height by up to four feet. No problem. So it didn’t seem so bad at first as the catamaran sliced through the swell at a good clip, and we made it to the adjacent island Koh Ph Ngan is about half an hour or so, on our way to Koh Tao. At this first stop, about a hundred or so of the party crowd got on the boat, as Ko PhaNgan is known for its full moon all night parties and raves, which is why we bypassed it with little hesitation. Many of these ragged bunch looked like they may have partied a little hard the night before, which made getting on the boat a bad idea under good conditions. However, theses would not be good conditions. Unfortunately I think no one on board realized that the next leg would really take us out into open seas and that we’d be crossing in huge winds and swells that caused the front of the boat to rise way up and slam down continuosly, while sending your inner ear to the moon. Also, the rain started and the seas got dark and nasty, which made looking for any horizon impossible. It was actually a bit scary at times, since the typhoon conditions seemed to get worse and worse.

But soon it started. The first woman bolted out the side door dangerously onto the front side deck and started to add chum to the ocean. Then the next few started in the front rows. The woman next us was hunched over and limp-green. Finally, the crew realized what was happening and went into a Stage 5 Hurl Alert. They passed up and and down the two aisles of the airplane like interior with plastic bags and plenty of toilet paper. They even had some sort of menthol smelling salts that they gave to people to sniff, which may have helped a few, but it was pretty ugly. Hands continued to go up and the guys would run down the aisle to the rescue, like medics pulling soldiers off a battlefield. I’d say at least a quarter of the boats 200 passengers succumbed to hurling, and another half were very green. As anyone knows who has been seasick, the smell of another getting sick can set off a wave that it is hard to stop. Amazingly, Cheryl and I resisted the pull and held on for nearly two hours, although I have to admit it was a bit dicey for awhile. I actually made the mistake of heading back to the bathrooms (for standard purposes) but discovered that the areas in the back around the “heads” was like a refuge camp of the ill and miserable. I looked away, held my pee, and headed back to my seat, and told Cheryl, “DO NOT go back there!” When we finally docked, there was nearly a stampede of sick folks pushing out the doors as they clearly didn’t want to be on that boat for 1 second longer than necessary.

So crazily enough we are about to get back on the same boat for another two hour crossing, but the weather looks o.k. today (but not great, still quite windy). We are going to eat early, sit near the back of the boat (but away from the heads!) and hope for the best.

Other than the boat crossing, everything is pretty lovely here on the islands so please don’t feel too sorry for us, with great people, beaches, and we even managed some snorkeling, although it has been a challenge with the wind and certainly not ideal conditions on the reefs.

We hired a long boat to take us over to a small island off Koh Tao for some snorkeling and even that crossing hit some windy open chop that had us all laughing at the showers we got before even getting to the island. Luckily, the long boat pilots are great and of course, come complete with the wonderful Thai disposition where everything is fun, happy, and a laugh. It’s very endearing. The island, Koh Nang Yuan was actually three little islands connected by two sand bars that were getting pummelled by the wind driven swells. there is one little dive “resort” with some bungalows, bar, and restaurant. It’s a very cool and unique setting, although the conditions were just too rough for an good snorkeling. We nicknamed it “Danger Island” as everything there was kind of scary, including the crossing, the rickety old dock, and the waves breaking the sand bars with the open seas just a hundred meters away. Very Robinson Crusoe, but with a tiki bar.

Yesterday, we hiked over the ridge of the Island to a small bay on the East Coast which had better snorkeling (including beautiful green coral and large rainbow fish), but still pretty rough with the swells from the Northeast coming around the point into the cove.

It was great to see more of the island as walking from side to side and back we saw more of the local people, housing and lifestyle which you don’t see much of down on the coastal beach areas, where most of the prime property is now inhabited by “farangs” (gringos to the Thais). We’ve had some fantastic food and are looking even more forward to getting more authentic food on the mainland.

As for our direction….well, due to our friends being gone during the holidays in Bangkok, we’re now going to head straight up to Laos after an overnight on the mainland tonight and then a night train North tomorrow. Why not. So it looks like Christmas in Vientiane. We have heard nothing but positive things about the Lao people and travelling there is supposed to be quite rewarding and very laid-back. We tplan on heading north through Laos and exiting back into Northern Thailand (where we get a new 30-day visa) and then working our way back to Bangkok. We are slowly adjusting to the heat, but the inland areas may be a test along with the bugs, as we discovered yesterday while eating our new improved Museli, “now with more added ants!” as the little devils crawled into our “sealed” bag somehow. But when you have yummy overpriced Museli and yogurt already prepared in your room, you just can’t bear to throw anything out. So we ate a few ants that didn’t clear the yogurt swamp. Mmmm, protein. Clearly, we need to up our defenses in the jungles as the bugs here are serious. Everything is bigger and more colorful in the tropics.

Well, some photos of Thailand will be coming soon, but for now, just the prose.

We miss you all and hope you have a wonderful and peaceful Christmas and New Year.

Rich

Well we made it out of Mumbai, but not without India throwing us some final punches on the way to the airport. We caught a safe looking private taxi from outside our hotel to the airport, allowing 2 hours to go less than 20 km based on Mumbai’s legendary reputation for traffic. Everything seemed great after the mandatory 5 men finished their discussion about the pending journey for another few minutes (It appears to take a minimum of 5 men to complete most service tasks in India, I think this may be law)

Now there is a way to get to one train station closer to where we were staying, take a local train to a station closer to the airport (but not that close) and then catch a taxi form there, but it would have been at rush hour which every guide book says is a crazy thing to attempt, especially with backpacks on. The trains are packed and nuts. Just take a taxi they say. And getting to and from each end would have meant even more tedious negotiations with taxi divers. Now believe me if this was Vienna, we would have taken 8 connections to get to the airport as needed and it still would have been easier and less stressful. (In fact, we did take 3 seamless connections to get to the Vienna airport)

So the drive started out calmly enough as we settled into the thick traffic heading out of the Colaba neighborhood of South Mumbai, but then we started to slowly realize that our 20-something driver was a testosterone laden nut. He proceeded to use the oncoming lanes frequently to try to pass on quasi-highways and alternately would use the inside “curb” lane to try to make some progress when things had stopped for about 10 minutes halfway into our trip. He was not gaining anything as the inside lane was clogged with throngs of carts, people, and dogs also trying to make there way along the streets. When he passed on the outside, he would often spend more time trying to merge back into traffic then those just residing themselves to the slow pace of Mumbai’s nightmare transportation system. (And yes, we felt guilty that we were adding to this mess). Meanwhile we passed glitzy new high rise “neighborhoods” with lines of nice cars streaming out into the clogged mess alternating with some of the worst slum living that I have seen, including piles of trash burning, tarp cities, and men defecating 5 feet from the car traffic. India is so disturbing, that I still get upset with people who glamorize it in any way. It’s a mess, both socially and environmentally. Sure, it’s not all bad and you have to look forward, but please be realistic. Any yes, I know the South is much different, so again I speak for the 13 places we visited.

So when traffic really started to crawl, he turned and asked what time are flight was and we told him midnight, so we still had plenty of time. No panic, my crazy friend was the tone of both our voices….but it did not seem to matter. He proceeded down a side six lane boulevard which seemed to have a variable flow traffic system in place similar to the Golden Gate Bridge as the crush of traffic was taking 4 to 5 lanes and only one lane was managing to squeeze by in the opposite direction. (Of course this system was voluntary) That of course was until our brainiac driver decided to take the sixth lane as a “shortcut” and then couldn’t merge back into the other lanes as the intersection ahead was completely and seemingly girdlocked. So one of the old 1950’s style Fiat like black and yellow Mumbai meter taxis approached and slowed as it looked like he might be able to squeeze by. Sccreeeunhch! Nope, his bruiser taxi with 3-inch thick steel bumpers proceeded to tear off the back corner panel and part of the bumper of our taxis shiny new Tata compact sedan. So the two taxis actually got stuck together with interlocked bumpers and no way to maneuver out. If the bruiser taxi had proceeded then our car would have lost the whole bumper and probably part of the small trunk. So now we’re thinking great, we really are never going to get out of India and this now going to take an hour to sort out, although clearly our driver was completely at fault for being three lanes over into oncoming traffic. The frequent feelings of claustrophobia that I had in India came back quickly, filling me with a panic that being in a sea of 20 million people can only induce.

Well, luckily 20 of the 1000 men on that particular block of Mumbai all started to offer their opinions on how the two cars could get apart, and then proceeded to help lift the back and back bumper of the bruiser taxi to the side. More crunching steel on plastic and other bad sounds as the cars finally came apart. Now, clearly our driver did not own this car and it was obvious from the expression on his face after surveying the damage that he was going to be in a world of hurt when he got back to the boss man. Despite his “Fast and Furious” inspired driving style, we felt really bad for him. But there is no need for paperwork since only the one (at fault) car had real damage, we were actually on our way in about 5 minutes. We still think that the bruiser taxi did this on purpose as his tank was untouched and he wanted to teach our driver a lesson for gridlocking all the oncoming traffic. Yup, cars are stupid, and they are multiplying in India along with young males and an advertising campaigns showing blinged-out hipsters racing through the imaginary streets of the new India.

So did he proceed to mellow out and take it easy the rest of the way? No way. We were both certain that he might have at least 1 or maybe 2 more accidents before we made it to the airport. He was just a bad driver, but we had no choice as we were where the taxis would only be passing by full, since no taxi would be cruising empty in 10 miles of crawling traffic. But we screeched into the terminal 2 hours later, completely wigged out and shaking a bit, but happy to have made it in one piece. I’m sure he’ll have a completely different story for his boss (the Camel came out of nowhere!), but I still gave him a good tip out of sheer pity for the fact that was clearly a fellow in the wrong profession and I suspect would be looking for other work now. It’s hard to be a saint in the city of Mumbai.

So we had a short 3 1/2 hour flight to Bangkok and managed to get a few hours of sleep prior to a 5-hour layover in the somewhat cavernous new Bangkok airport. Everything in the airport was orderly. We got off in Surat Thani, got our baggage in 5 minutes and then asked how we could get to Ko Samui island. Here is your ticket, there is the bus that will connect you to the ferry terminal in an hour or so and so were getting off onto the island about 4 easy hours later. No hassles, everybody mellow. Taxi from the pier to the area of island that we wanted to look for housing. Everything easy and only one person completes each task. Very strange.

So we lucked out and got two nights at my first choice little place called the Lodge, on the Bo Phut beach. It was fabulous and probably one the most pleasant places that I have ever stayed. (and for $34)

They were booked from today on, so we took a little walk down the beach yesterday and checked out a few other places and found one we liked for a similar price. No hassles, they tell you the price and show you the room. I can’t really describe the difference from India as a traveller. The Thai people are so nice, and so mellow. Ho honking, no running you off the road out of sheer motorized arrogance, and they ask you once if you wold like something and give a clear answer to questions. Granted, this is an uber tourist island, so it may be different as we hopefully encounter more genuine Thai life in the interior and mountains of the North.

Oh, and yes the food is great, with the more casual and local looking places off the beach strip serving the best food. (An easy rule of thumb anywhere).

Yup, it’s paradise here and on Saturday we are going to head to the more coral laced Koh Tau for another 4 nights, as long as we squeeze out some accommodation prior o the Holliday onslaught due in a week or so. Then we’ll be ready to get back to some more challenging travel again, as we now just need now a vacation from our travels.

Peace to all and especially the 1.1 Billion Indians. May you rise and prosper.